Blizzard has announced Overwatch 2 during this years BlizzCon.
We’ve seen a number of incredible cinematic trailers already during BlizzCon, and the Overwatch 2 announcement was no different. In the trailer, Winston, Mei, and Tracer try to fight off a Null Sector invasion in Paris, and just when you think Winston is in serious danger from a giant omnic which looks a lot like Megazord from Power Rangers, a hooded up Genji jumps in like an absolute badass to save the day, closely followed by “the cavalry” – Reinhardt, Brigitte, Echo, and Mercy. Check it out below:
While the first Overwatch was strictly a competitive PvP experience, the games characters and lore—which was fleshed out away from the game in online cinematics and comics—was absolutely crying out for some story-based content, and that appears to be the main new direction which Overwatch 2 is heading in. Players will be able to team up for story missions in what Blizzard is calling “highly replayable co-op” in locations such as Route 66, Paris, and Ilios. You’ll also be able to level up your heroes, unlock talents, and customize your abilities.
Overwatch’s traditional player-versus-player gameplay isn’t going anywhere though. There’s a new competitive mode called Push, a number of new maps including Toronto, Rio de Janieiro, Monte Carlo, and Gothenburg, and a number of new heroes which Blizzard describes as “shaking up competitive play and creating opportunities for bold new strategies.”. The first of these new characters has already been confirmed as Sojourn.
Interestingly, Blizzard says that all player accomplishments, skins, icons, sprays, and emotes will carry over to Overwatch 2, and “current Overwatch players will battle side-by-side with Overwatch 2 players in PvP multiplayer”. That means that Overwatch players will have access to all of Overwatch 2’s heroes and maps, with Jeff Kaplan describing the game as “a shared multiplayer environment where no one gets left behind,”. Exactly how that’s going to work or what that means for Overwatch 2 as a release I’m not sure, but I’m presuming that it’s more of an expansion than a full-priced release. It seems like the real new content that you’ll be purchasing is the PvE content, while anything PvP related is a free update for everybody. We’ll have to wait and see if/how that affects the price.
No release date was given for Overwatch 2, but we’ll keep you updated as and when that information becomes available.
Leave a Reply